Get Axed

BY PAULA MCCAMBRIDGE

It begins with the axe. I was instructed to hold it from the base of the handle, like a hammer. I feel the heft of it in my right hand.

“You don’t have to be an athlete,” shared a Chop Shop coach, known as an axe-whisperer. “It’s not about brute strength. It’s definitely about finesse, like a golf swing.”

The only golf I’ve played is miniature, so I interpret his instruction by envisioning a scenario where I hold a drink in one hand and watch children in my periphery while I flailingly launch the sharpened-steel axe across the room.

TIP!

ATown Chop Shop is located at 6250 El Camino

Real in Atascadero. Their number is (805) 439-1004. Reservations can be made on their website, atownchopshop.com

It is not what he means. Safety is number one here, so I face the wood target, take one step forward with my dominant foot to stabilize my throwing stance. I then move the axe up into the air, landing gracefully behind my back, imagining my face painted half blue and half white, a resurrection of Braveheart.

In one, fluid motion, I swing the axe overhead toward the target, release my weapon with a banshee yell and feel my inner warrior spring to life as the blade resoundingly sinks into the wood about twenty feet away.

Once is not enough. “AGAIN!” is my silent yell as I stomp toward the target to wiggle —no—to yank, wrench, and muscle my axe from the wall for another throw.

This entire life-altering adventure is possible because of the dream of Matt and Jennifer Corning who first threw axes together on a family trip to Arizona a few years ago. “Our journey has been a pretty awesome one,” Matt said. “When we were in Arizona, Jen and I were looking for something to do, and my sister found a place.”

Not only that, Matt’s mother, in her 70s joined them, and found her own inner warrior. “She gave it a go and was really good,” Matt said. “Axe-throwing isn’t just for young people—it’s for grandmas too. My mom came in third place beating all these hulking guys.” >>

The experience was so energizing that Matt and Jennifer hatched a plan of their own. “We started talking. It lit a flame under us,” Matt said. “We were hot and heavy to open a place then March 2020 happened.”

That was the start of the Covid pandemic, so opening a permanent site wouldn’t have been a good business move just yet, but they didn’t quit their idea. Instead, they opened a mobile unit where they could travel to private gatherings and corporate team-building exercises. They call their mobile unit—still available for private parties—SLO AXE Company, which is the name they use on their social media pages.

“We put a lot of thought, love, and creativity into this. We’ve worked very hard, and seeing the permanent shop open is pretty awesome,” Matt said. “It’s a blend of Medieval Times and Modern Technology.”

The Atown Chop Shop is a contrasting scene of dark and lights. Motorcycle parts collected from scrap bins are embedded in the concrete countertops built by the artists at local Concast Studios. Turn-of-the-20thcentury barn wood from Huasna Valley right here in San Luis Obispo County covers the walls. Under the bar is the entire grill of an old Dodge found in a field in South Dakota. A seven-foot-wide bull head with red eyes and smoke wafting from its nostrils adorns one wall.

When visitors walk in for the first time, Matt shares, “People look at you like you’re crazy, ‘We’re going to do what now?’ Then by the end, they’re hugging you. You watch the empowerment.”

One of their regulars, known in Atascadero simply as Uncle Dave, first met Matt at his mobile unit at BarrelHouse Brewing Company in Paso Robles. “I went there with some friends for a concert then we end up getting to throw an axe,” Uncle Dave recalls. “No person on earth doesn’t want to try that. That was my first time. Now, I have my own custom axe, German steel.”

The Cornings empower family as well as the public—they have five children in their blended family, all of whom are now axe-throwers.

The Chop Shop is a lounge with a giant, roll-up metal garage door that will be open during business in good weather, so visitors can relax inside or out to have a beer and what Matt calls “basic food” before or after their experience.

Everyone age ten or over (children only with adults) are welcome. Reservations are encouraged, but walk-ins are welcome too. And if you’re local and can’t get enough, join a league. There will be two. League members can use their house axes or bring their own, some of which will be for sale at Chop Shop.

They tell guests to channel their inner lumberjacks. Plaid flannel shirts and oversized blue oxes are optional. SLO LIFE